History and mythology make for strange bedfellows, and few stranger times than the story of Pope Sylvester II (pope from 999-1003 C.E.) and the succubus.

First, though, let’s talk a little about succubi – you know, those sexy female demons so popular in medieval and modern narratives, from movies to television series to books to pen and paper games to video games.

In modern convention, succubi seduce men and drain the life force (sometimes simply blood) during sex, so more or less a sexy energy vampire.

The original succubus, however, were decidedly odder. The infamous 15th century witch hunter manual The Malleus Maleficarum (or in English, “The Witch’s Hammer”) was condemned by the Catholic Church three years after its publication, though it nevertheless became an very important resource in the brutal prosecution of witchcraft in Europe over the next couple of centuries.

The author of the Malleus Maleficarum, a German inquisitor by the name of Heinrich Kramer, concluded that succubi and their male counterparts, incubi – were in fact the same creature. The seeming procreative capabilities of the incubus was simply the act of the demon first taking the form of a beautiful woman to collect the semen of a mortal man, and then, before said semen went bad, to travel quickly to a supplicant woman who wished to become pregnant. Taking then the form of the male incubus, the demon would then impregnate her.

Yes, the succubus was originally conceived of as an erotic hermaphrodite.

But what about this pope I mentioned above? Ah, yes. That would be Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert d’Aurillac in the Kingdom of France, he studied magical arts and astrology in the Islamic cities of Cordoba and Seville (remember, at that time the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule), and was the source of a number of fascinating stories, including one where he had a mechanic device in the shape of a head that would answer truly questions put to it in the form of yes/no propositions.

Stranger even than the brazen head, however, is his reputed pact with a succubus by the name of Meridiana. After d’Aurillac had been rejected romantically, he made a pact with her in order to ascend the papal throne.

Meridiana warned d’Aurillac that if he should ever read a mass in Jerusalem, the Devil himself would come to him. Canceling his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, d’Aurillac thought he had dodged a bullet (or rather, a crossbow bolt). After reading mass in the church in Rome by the name of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme – that is, “The Holy Cross of Jerusalem” – d’Aurillac became deathly sick.

In one version of subsequent events, the Devil mutilated him, granting d’Aurillac’s own gouged out eyes to petty demons for them to play with. Repenting, d’Aurillac cut off his hand and tongue.

Not in the historical record, unfortunately, is whether the succubus Meridiana got a promotion in the Infernal Hierarchy for her exemplary professional work.

Via Wikipedia.